If Lamo's testimony and the chat logs of their conversations are to be believed, then Manning confided not just details about the cables he'd passed to WikiLeaks but of his troubled personal life as well. Lamo convinced Manning that he would keep their conversations confidential, and even told him that he was a "journalist" and could protect his identity as a source in the event.

But Lamo was intending to act as an informant the entire time, and promptly turned all of their correspondence over to the feds. They had never met in person, and, on Tuesday, they came face to face for the first time.

This is as pure a portrait of Manning's character at the time of the leaks as you're likely to see—and Lamo has no choice but to agree that it's accurate. The climax comes at the end, when Lamo himself, the informant, acknowledges that Manning had displayed no intent to aid the enemy, and instead fully believed that he was acting in the public interest.

What follows is a transcript of Coombs' cross-examination of Lamo, lightly edited for clarity, as recorded by the diligent, fleet-fingered folks at the Free Press Foundation (no audio or video recorders are allowed in the trial). It is well worth reading in full.

The case of Bradley Manning, the United States Army private accused of passing classified military and diplomatic documents to the whistle-blowing document-sharing website Wikileaks, has finally come to trial. It is expected to last up to three months and features among its witnesses Adrian Lamo, the hacker who turned Manning in.